Registrations are Now Open for Studios to Submit Their Games to the International Independent Game Competition during Latin America’s Largest Independent Games Festival

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL (August 5, 2020) — Today, Brazil Games is pleased to announce the new date for Brazil’s Independent Games (BIG) Festival, the largest and most important independent games festival in Latin America. The eighth edition of BIG Festival will take place at the Frei Caneca Convention Center in São Paulo from May 5 to 9, 2021.  BIG returns with a renewed focus on its three core pillars — lectures from highly respected industry professionals, face-to-face business meetings, and the expansive and fan-favorite consumer festival.

With support from  Brazil Games Export Program, a partnership between the Brazilian Game Companies Association, ABRAGAMES, and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), BIG Festival carries on the tradition of providing a fundamental business hub for video game professionals across the globe through its lectures, networking events, and face-to-face meetings.

“We are happy to announce the new date for the physical version of the BIG Festival,” said Gustavo Steinberg, Director of the BIG Festival. “Our hope is that by May 2021, the situation with the Covid epidemic will have improved to the point where the festival can return to a physical in-person format.”

As part of the BIG Festival, the International Independent Games Contest will be making a return. The competition features 18 awards categories and gives independent teams a chance to showcase their creations to an audience of their peers, and the world! Developers who are interested in entering may register via the official website: https://www.bigfestival.com.br/submit.html.

BIG Festival’s announcement follows the highly successful inaugural launch of its online event, BIG Digital, where more than 22,000 people tuned in to enjoy the 25 available seminars in both Portuguese and English. These game development seminars featured panels and discussions from 72  industry luminaries such as Epic Games, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, (Xbox), Nintendo, Snapchat, and Ubisoft, and generated more than 1.3  million views. From June 22 through June 26, 2020, more than 333 publishers, developers, and investors from 38 countries participated in 3,876 business meetings. These crucial virtual meetings resulted in an estimated $7 million USD in business deals during the show, which is anticipated to result in an estimated $33 million USD in games-related business over the next 12 months.

About BIG Festival

BIG Festival, which received more than 20,000 visitors in 2019, is the largest and most important game festival in Latin America. Since 2012, the event has become a central meeting point for studios to attend lectures and workshops, network, and meet with industry peers to learn more about the business of gaming. BIG has helped hundreds of innovative games from all over the world connect with an international audience. Networking opportunities held at the event generated more than 4,000 meetings between 630 game industry professionals from 34 countries. BIG estimates that BIG Festival 2019 resulted in more than USD 63 million in games-related business based on these connections. For more information about the upcoming event, visit the official website: https://www.bigfestival.com.br/.

Follow BIG Festival on LinkedIn, and keep current with BIG Festival 2021 by following the event on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe to the BIG Festival YouTube channel.

About the Games Industry and Brazil

Brazil is now the 13th largest video game market in the world and second in Latin America, only to Mexico. The $1.6 billion (USD) Brazilian games industry has nearly doubled in size since 2014, and the number of local gamers reached 75.7 million as of 2018, making Brazil the fourth-largest consumer market in the world. Half of both men and women in Brazil play mobile games, while roughly 40 percent of men and women play PC games, according to Newzoo. Purchase intent is healthy as well, as 83 percent of gamers in the region have made an in-game purchase within the past six months.

About Brazil Games

Brazil Games is the export program created by the Brazilian Independent Game Companies Association, ABRAGAMES, in partnership with Apex-Brasil, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency. Our goal is to promote the Brazilian Indie Game industry internationally, developing new business opportunities for our companies. The Brazil Games Program also promotes Brazil as the hub for business in Latin America and invites buyers, investors, and publishers for BIG Festival, Brazil’s Independent Games Festival, the most important international indie games festival, and the hub for international business in Latin America.

About Apex-Brasil

The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) works to promote Brazilian products and services abroad and to attract foreign investment to strategic sectors of the Brazilian economy. The Agency’s efforts comprise trade and prospective missions, business rounds, support for the participation of Brazilian companies in major international trade fairs, the arrangement of technical visits of foreign buyers and opinion makers to learn about the Brazilian productive structure, and other select activities designed to strengthen the country’s branding abroad. Apex-Brasil also plays a leading role in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Brazil, by working to identify business opportunities, promoting strategic events, and providing support to foreign investors interested in allocating resources in Brazil.